The Internet and Web have been progressively growing in all sectors of our lives. In today’s society most businesses and schools rely heavily on the internet to complete everyday tasks. Most innovative technology tools, in the beginning, were used regularly then soon tapered off. The Internet seems to be one that is continually growing and may never taper off.
The Internet has proven to be a resourceful tool in grades K-12. For example, school districts use the Internet to email parents and for advertisement; while, teachers require students to use it for research. However, I can not see using the Internet as a tool for instruction in grades K-12. If that were to happen then there would not be a need for a traditional class setting. Students would log-on to the internet from home and all their lessons would be accessible. In these grades, school is not a place where only academics are taught, this is where most students are taught social skills. In America most jobs require social interaction. The goal of school is to build a community of learners. These types of communities are what help make our country stronger and advance further. Just picture if there was only one person designing, creating and building a new invention. How long would it take? Therefore, businesses create team of people to produce things. In order for a team to be successful at completing a task, they must rely on the social skill of the entire team in order to achieve a common goal. Moreover, the Internet or Web has had some influence on education but may never be the primary source of the way instruction is presented to learners in grades K-12.
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3 comments:
I have to agree with you that it would not be in society's best interest to replace classroom education and interactions with others with education on the internet in the K-12 grades. However, I know of a local school that has replaced one of their foreign language teachers with an online foreign language program. Basically it was the only way this school could afford to meet the state requirements for language, so they have around 18 students taking an online course similar to Rosetta Stone. They take it in the school computer lab, but is this the start of something much bigger? Are we (they) making a poor choice in making this an option? I feel that they are because one class will lead to 3, leading to 10, leading to replacement of teachers altogether. Okay... so maybe I'm on a slippery slope here, but when I look at the big picture... I see cost saving methods taking over. The internet in place of a certified teacher is the start of one of those methods. Just a thought!
Tamara
Your statement, "Moreover, the Internet or Web has had some influence on education" and a lot of influence on social etiquette. Students interact so much with machines and not enough with humans. I believe we are already reaping the negative effects of social interaction. Misspelled words, poor grammar, abbreviations, slang, and the list goes on. To interacting face to face and forming social, real life, networks seems to be a thing of the past. Personalities have been offset by this need for constant stimulation.
While I agree that teacher and social interaction cannot be replaced by technology and internet, I still believe that the internet can be used as a teaching tool, but not as a replacement for teaching. Tools are to help students understand the material, but the teacher has to use those resources effectively.
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